Friday, April 10, 2009

Skinner Pilot began as a side project for Elizabeth Sharp, who was then the drummer for Massachusetts noise-pop favorites New Radiant Storm King. Around 1995 she left New Radiant Storm King to focus on Skinner Pilot, a band in which she played bass and split the vocal duties with guitarist Andrew Zarou. The previous year, the band had contributed the track "Traces of Alignment" to the Hotel Massachusetts compilation released on Chunk Records (you can read up on the fascinating story of the Chunk label here). Skinner Pilot's one and only full length release, This Parking Lot is Being Videotaped was released on GoodSin Records in 1997. Its a dark record characterized by slinky, angular guitar work reminiscent of Unwound and early Sonic Youth. Sharp would soon shift her focus yet again, this time to her current project, the rhythm-focused one woman band Ill Ease.